Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, SportsLady Raiders overwhelm Bullets right from start, win sectional

By BLAKE TOPPMEYER
Herald-Whig Sports Writer

BEARDSTOWN, Ill. — The Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team whalloped Williamsville 90-28 in Thursday's Class 2A Beardstown Sectional championship, but the Lady Raiders still couldn't take way Jon Hampton's sense of humor.

Just before Hampton, Williamsville's coach, left the gym, he changed the score on the scoreboard so it read that his Bullets won 91-90.

"Now take a picture of that," Hampton told Williamsville senior Kathryn Spenn, as the two shared a laugh.

If only it were that easy to take down QND (30-1), ranked No. 1 in Class 2A and the defending 2A champions.

QND led 2-0 two seconds into the game after Kassidy Gengenbacher scored a layup off an assist from Tori Kuhn, who received the opening tip after it was won by Jordan Frericks.

The Lady Raiders led 4-0 after Frericks quickly generated a steal and a layup out of QND's full-court press. That led Hampton to call a timeout just 11 seconds into the game.

"We always strive to make the other team call a timeout first and not have us be that team," Gengenbacher said. "That does give you a lot of momentum when (the opponent calls) a timeout, because it just gets everyone pumped up, and you want to go out and do it again."

The Lady Raiders did that.

Williamsville turned the ball over nine times in its first 11 possessions, struggling against QND's full-court press and half-court pressure defense, and tallied 37 turnovers for the game.

QND made 15 of 16 field-goal attempts in the first quarter and led 32-2 at the end of eight minutes.

"We just always want to come out with a bang," Frericks said.

By the end of the third quarter, the Lady Raiders led 74-14.

QND will face Champaign St. Thomas More (27-5) at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Decatur Super-Sectional at Milliken University. St. Thomas More advanced Thursday by defeating Fairbury Prairie
Central 53-44 in overtime.

The Lady Raiders had 24 turnovers of their own Thursday but made 21 of 25 (84 percent) of their first-half field-goal attempts and shot 77.1 percent for the game. QND's starting five combined for 27-of-30 (90 percent) shooting.

That was in stark contrast to Monday night, when QND defeated Hillsboro 63-26 despite shooting 35.6 percent.

"Last game we didn't play our best, so this game we just really wanted to come out strong," Gengenbacher said. "We just weren't playing like ourselves on Monday, and today we really did. We were sharing the ball and had good offensive and defensive sets."

Gengenbacher had a game-high 21 points along with four assists. Frericks poured in 19 points, six steals and five rebounds, and Kristen Gengenbacher added 15 points and five steals.

Of QND's 37 field goals, 24 were assisted.

"When we share the ball, it's fun to watch," QND coach Eric Orne said. "There were a couple times tonight where we'd have (a steal), take one dribble and make a bounce pass and have a layup. And next thing, it was five seconds later, and we just did the same thing."

Jessie McEvoy led Williamsville (25-6) with 11 points, making her the only Bullet to score more than four points.

"We were 25-5, and they're 62 points better than us. And they are 62 points better than us," Hampton said. "They are 40 or 50 points than the (rest of Class 2A). Literally, they are."

QND received a bit of a scare when Frericks went down hard after a foul in the first quarter. She was shaken up on the play and airballed a free throw before going to the bench to seek attention on her shooting hand.

"She bent her fingers back, but it's going to be OK," Orne said.

Frericks returned later in the first quarter and wound up going 8 for 8 from the floor overall.

"She's a tough girl, and you know she's going to stick it out," Kassidy Gengenbacher said. "She's going to do anything she can to play."

— btoppmeyer@whig.com/221-3367